Breakdown of Du musst sofort dein Zimmer aufräumen.
du
you (informal singular)
das Zimmer
the room
dein
your (informal)
müssen
to have to, must
aufräumen
to clean up / to tidy
sofort
immediately
Questions & Answers about Du musst sofort dein Zimmer aufräumen.
Why is aufräumen at the very end of the sentence?
In German, when you use a modal verb like musst (must), it takes the second position in the sentence. The main action verb, which is aufräumen (to clean up), gets pushed to the very end in its full, unchanged dictionary form.
Isn't aufräumen a separable verb? Why isn't it split up here?
You are right, aufräumen is a separable verb, so normally you might see something like ich räume auf. However, because we have the modal verb musst in this sentence, the rule to put the main verb at the end overrides the separation rule. The verb stays together as one word at the end.
Why is it dein Zimmer and not deinen Zimmer?
Zimmer is a neuter noun (das Zimmer). In this sentence, it is the direct object receiving the action of being cleaned, so it is in the accusative case. For neuter words in the accusative case, the possessive word dein (your) does not take an extra ending.
Could I put sofort at the end of the sentence instead?
No, because the modal verb rule forces the main action verb aufräumen to be the very last word. Also, in German, adverbs of time like sofort (immediately) usually come early in the sentence, typically right after the conjugated verb.
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